The Age of Persuasion

Season 4: "Context"

Posted by Age of Persuasion on March 18 at 09:26 AM

Airs on Radio One:
Saturday 20 March, 2010 10am
Monday 22 March 2010 11:30am

A great ad can become a bad one when it’s out of context. Witness the billboard raising awareness of childhood obesity placed beside another for a fast-food giant. This week, Terry explores the importance of context in the craft of persuasion. He’ll show how great ad writers play with context to create memorable messages. He’ll explain why advertisers have come to relate to consumers in the context of a servant/master relationship, and how consumers punish marketers who stray bound those boundaries.

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Season 4: "All Things Being Equal: Parity Products"

Posted by Age of Persuasion on March 10 at 11:27 AM

Airs on Radio One:
Saturday 13 March, 2010 10am
Monday 15 March 2010 11:30am

Suppose you’re a marketer trying to sell a product with few or no discernible differences from rival brands. In advertising, that’s where the rubber hits the road. This week Terry explores “parity” products: “low-interest” products such as razors, detergents and toothpastes which, without marketing help, all seem alike. You’ll meet the ad pioneer who perfected “parity” marketing, and turned a failed toothpaste into one of the world’s mightiest brands.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30):

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Season 4: "Marketing the Unpleasant"

Posted by Age of Persuasion on March 09 at 04:34 PM

Airs on Radio One:
Saturday 27 February, 2010 10am
Originally aired on 4 January, 2010

They are the ads that make everyone squirm - consumers, media, and especially ad copywriters. Ads for the funeral industry, laxatives, incontinence pads, and the queen mother of unpleasant ad briefs - feminine hygiene products. Terry O’Reilly looks at marketing the unpleasant, from the strange-but-true history of marketing menstruation products, to Wal-Mart’s recent decision to sell caskets and urns online.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30):

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Season 4: “Being There: Selling Experiences”

Posted by Age of Persuasion on February 26 at 10:18 AM

Airs on Radio One:
Saturday 27 February, 2010 10am
Monday 1 March 2010 11:30am

When is an airline not an airline? Or a bottle of pop more than a packaged good on a shelf? When it’s an experience. This week Terry O’Reilly examines the new trend towards "experiential" marketing, where consumers do more than buy a brand - they engage it. And he traces “modern” retail experiences (Starbucks, for instance, where attitude, atmosphere, sounds & smells combine to create a social experience) all the way back to department store pioneers Timothy Eaton and John Wanamaker.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30):

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Season 4: "Are People Idiots?”

Posted by Age of Persuasion on February 24 at 11:26 AM

Airs on Radio One:
Saturday 20 February, 2010 10am
Monday 22 February 2010 11:30am

Ad giant David Ogilvy once wrote “the consumer is not a moron: she is your wife!” A few years earlier, Journalist H.L. Menchen wrote: “No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” Who’s right? This week, Terry O’Reilly explains why “lowest common denominator” advertising is bad business- and why it remains agonizingly popular.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30):

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